Garcetti taps 5 supporters to serve on L.A. library panel

Mayor Eric Garcetti named five people to the Board of Library Commissioners, a volunteer panel that oversees dozens of regional and branch libraries.

Mayor Eric Garcetti named five people to the Board of Library Commissioners, a volunteer panel that oversees dozens of regional and branch libraries. (Susannah Kay / Los Angeles Times)

David Zahniser

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Friday named five people to the Board of Library Commissioners, all of them supporters of his bid for citywide office earlier this year.

The volunteer panel, which oversees dozens of regional and branch libraries, will have four new appointees: Gregory Bettinelli, a partner with Upfront Ventures; Mai Lassiter, a volunteer and fundraiser for charitable groups; Josefa Salinas, a radio personality who appears on 92.3 FM; and Bich Ngoc Cao, an online marketing and social media strategist.

Each nominee played a role in Garcetti's mayoral bid earlier this year. Bettinelli, an affiliated executive with Freeman Spogli & Co., donated $5,000 to an independent expenditure committee that supported Garcetti's candidacy. He and his wife also gave $5,200 directly to Garcetti's mayoral campaign.

Lassiter and her husband, film producer James Lassiter, opened up their Hancock Park home in March for a Garcetti campaign fundraiser. They also gave a combined $5,200 to Garcetti's campaign.

Cao co-hosted a small business fundraiser for Garcetti in the summer of 2012 and later co-produced a video on his behalf for the independent expenditure group Lots of People Who Support Eric Garcetti. Salinas endorsed Garcetti, appearing on his campaign's list of prominent Latino supporters, as well as a roster of entertainment industry figures who backed his candidacy.

Garcetti kept one library panelist from the administration of former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: former City Councilwoman Rita Walters. A library commissioner since 2002, Walters publicly endorsed Garcetti in April, doing so in tandem with Council President Herb Wesson and former Councilman Nate Holden.